1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus and a process for producing food products of the type generally known as corn dogs. It particularly concerns an apparatus and method that provides a reduction in production time and a corresponding increase in volume.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A corn dog is a wiener impaled upon a stick and coated with batter which is deep-fried to produce a crisp coating.
Initially, corn dogs were made by inserting sticks into wieners manually and clamping a plurality of sticks into a hand-operated clamp. A worker grasped the clamp and dipped the food articles in batter. Thereafter, the batter-coated wieners were immersed in hot grease. Patents relating to this early activity include U.S. Pat. No. 1,706,491 (Jenkins), U.S. Pat. No. 3,648,625 (Glass); and numerous others.
Production techniques became much more sophisticated with the development of machinery. There, the wieners are impaled by sticks driven through clasps and holes in a stick clamp and are then dipped into a batter by elevation of the coating bin. The articles are elevated by rotating or flipping them above the lip of the fry tank and immersed in hot grease within the fry tank, cooked, and then elevated by rotating or flipping them out of the fry tank. Thermostatically controlled heating elements suspended above the floor of the tank heat the grease. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,379,795 (Walser); U.S. Pat. No. 4,430,930 (Walser) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,181 (Walser). Thus, the production process became fully automated and enabled the consistent production of corn dogs not achievable in the manual processes.
While automation provided enormous gains in efficiency and production, the process is still inhibited by a relatively slow production time, primarily because fully cured wieners at a temperature from 28.degree. to 32.degree. Fahrenheit are introduced into a batter having a temperature from 35.degree. to 40.degree. Fahrenheit and are thereafter placed in a fryer to cook until a temperature of approximately 130.degree. Fahrenheit is reached, Thus, the time to raise the temperature of the food product from around 30.degree. to 130.degree. is substantial and places a restriction on the output of the process even though it is carried out by a fully automated machine.
Attempts to expedite the process include raising the temperature of the fryer to accelerate the necessary cooking, however, a rapid increase in heat does sometimes adversely affect the texture of the final food product.
Thus, there is a need for speeding up the cooking process and achieving greater product volumes for a given time, and it is to these needs that the present invention is directed.